On this website, there’s a video of me
showing you exactly how I find the best stocks and options, how I place the
trade, and the most important things that you need to know when picking stocks,
options, when to enter, when to exit, and all the good stuff.

So, back to the best stock market simulator…

Are you using them right now? If not, you should.

Let’s get started.

I received a question that said,
“Hello. I’ve watched that video about the trading routine. Very
informative. Thank you so much for sharing. I have a couple of questions. Is
this only a long swing trading strategy and also do you do day trading?”

Before I answer the question, let me tell
you about another one that I received. It asked, “Also, what do you think
about paper trading? I’m trying to do paper trading, but I know with real money
it is different.”

Yeah, absolutely!

It is different to trade with real money than with paper trading.

However, I think that everybody should be
trading on a simulator first. So, I want to tell you why that is. I want to
tell you what to keep in mind and then I also want to give you a free resource.

I want to give you the, in my opinion, best
trading simulator that there is on the market, and the cool thing is, it is free.
Does that sound good?

So, first of all, why should you use a stock market simulator?

Think about it this way… When they are
training pilots, right? I mean, to fly a plane with actual people in there…

How do you train them? First, on a
simulator.

After they train on a simulator and pass a
lot of tests, then they are allowed to go into a real plane, and this is where
they are training with a coach, with a trainer, with an experienced pilot.

Now think about this, if they would not be
on a simulator, would it make sense to go right into a plane and start flying?
Of course not.

You need to take trading on a stock market simulator seriously.

It is different than live trading, but if
you lose money on a simulator, you will lose money in real trading.

Think about it. If they would train the
pilot and every single time on the simulator, this pilot crashes. Do you think
they’d say, “You’ll be fine! Just go in the plane. It’ll be OK.” Of
course not, right?

So, same here with paper trading.

Trade on a simulator until you are successful.

Now, this does not mean that you will be successful when you’re trading live, but trust me, it is the other way around.

If you’re not successful on the simulator,
chances are that you will never succeed in live trading. It will be extremely
difficult.

How long should you be on a simulator?

Well, in my personal experience, for at
least 40 trades. It’s like 40 test flights on a simulator. So, why 40 trades?
First of all, 40 trades give you enough data to have a statistically
significant sample.

If you only place three trades and you say,
“Oh my gosh, all of these three trades are a winning trade. Let’s trade
live.” That is not enough. Even 10 trades are not enough.

So, based on my personal experience, and
when working one on one with private students, traders that I personally
mentor, I always say you have to place at least 40 trades on a simulator.

Where do you find the best stock market simulator?

Well, there are several companies out there
that are offering simulators.

My head coach Mark and I, we tested more
than twelve simulators. Most of them are not very realistic and that’s one of
the things that you need in a simulator. You need a realistic simulator.

The one that we found to be the most realistic is…

Paper Money from Think or Swim

All you need to do is Google Paper Money
Think or Swim. When you go there, you’ll see: Register for Paper Money Think of
Swim. Very easy, very straightforward. It’s free for 90 days.

TD Ameritrade offers it and you don’t need
to have an account with them. A free 90 days should be enough for you to paper
trade and get some experience with this.

One more thing – very, very, very important
when it comes to paper trading…

When paper trading, there’s usually a button that says, “reset all.”

This means you can wipe out whatever you
did and start over fresh.

And sometimes this is very appealing, isn’t
it? I mean, sometimes it’s very tempting to say, “Oh my gosh! I had a few
losing trades. Let’s start over.”

Don’t do this. And here’s why.

In real life, in live trading, there is no
such a button.

I mean, wouldn’t that be nice if such a
button exists where you say, “Start over. Put all the money back in the
trading account. All the losses that I had?” No. Take your paper trading seriously.

You want to make sure that you will learn
how to climb out of a hole. Because you will make mistakes when paper trading,
and you will make mistakes in real trading.

So, it’s better if you learn how to overcome these mistakes – don’t think that if you made a mistake once, you’ll never make it again. Come on. It will happen.

It happened to me the other day.

I was live trading at one of my events. While
explaining something, I accidentally used a limit order instead of a stop
order.

Now, I caught myself, but you see, even
after all these years of trading, it can still happen. Fortunately, I was able to correct this
mistake, but hey, mistakes happen all the time.

If you enjoyed this article, make sure you
leave a comment and let me know if this was helpful for you. I really appreciate
all the comments.

If you have a question like the person I
mentioned, leave a question. I’ll make sure that I answer it in an upcoming
article.

Trading Futures, options on futures and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. The lower the day trade margin, the higher the leverage and riskier the trade. Leverage can work for you as well as against you; it magnifies gains as well as losses. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.